House of Forbiddens [COMPLETE NOVEL]

24: Rainbows, Butterflies, and Cheesy Puns

Christine

I am completely enveloped in darkness. Time seems to be infinite, and yet no time passes at all. I am trapped in oblivion. Yes, that's the word: Oblivion. Like a deep sleep, a thoughtless oblivion.

Suddenly, there is light. A dull, harsh, blue glow that poisons the eyes, but still light. I go to it, yet I cannot feel myself move, only watch as I grow closer and closer to the mysterious star.

Before I can reach it, it is snatched up. The blue aura illuminates the face of its captor. Through the blood and the ichor, the dirt and the grime, is a pale, sickly face topped by blonde, almost white hair. His thin lips curve into a malicious smile that makes me cringe. Then, ceremoniously, he raises the object above his head with both hands and closes his eyes.

Everything around me seems to vibrate, like whenever you turn up the bass line on a rock song, and you can feel the seat of your car shaking. There is a deep rumble, silent at first, but then crescendoing to a thunderous roar.

In a blue flash, the boy and the light are gone. My every sense ceases, and the oblivion overpowers me, again.

Kaden

A pale, almost ghostly boy (no pun intended) with dark black hair stepped up and took a seat.

"Nico," Hades said, "So glad you could join us for your stepbrother's reunion."

Persephone smiled. "Yes, you really did spring into action when we called with the news."

Hades nodded. "Persephone would've died if she hadn't seen you before she left for the spring thaw."

"After all, it is good for you two to finally meet," Persephone said, and Ian and Nico visibly cringed at what they knew was coming next, "You're stepbrothers, yet you're practically ghosts to each other."

Nico slammed his head against the table. "When will it end?" he groaned.

"No," Ian reprimanded, "You aren't allowed to feel bad for yourself. I've had to deal with this for hours!"

I couldn't help myself. "Yes, you look dead from the trauma of it all."

Persephone giggled. "I like you! Definitely won't be turning you into a sunflower any time soon." That was disturbing. Did she have a habit of turning people into sunflowers?

"Anyway..." Ian desperately began changing the subject, "About me coming back to life and all that..."

"Whoa," Nico spread his hands to signal us to slow down, "You died. That's it. You can't just bargain your life back. It doesn't work like that."

I shrugged. "Sure it does. There are plenty of myths about it."

Now he turned accusingly to Hades, looking at the lord of the dead in a way that took equal amounts of courage and stupidity. "Why didn't you give Bianca this option?"

I don't know this dude, and I certainly don't know who this Bianca person is, so I decided to watch and not to pry.

Hades sighed. "We have been through this many times before. She didn't want that."

Ian has less common sense than me and decided to pry. "Was Bianca your girl friend?"

Nico almost choked on his sudden laughter. "No! I have a boyfriend, Will."

Now it was my turn to pry. "Will Solace?"

"How did you know?" Another question occurred to him. "Wait, who even are you?"

"I'm Kaden. I'm friends with Will."

"Oh..." he seemed to be connecting some dots, "He told me about you and the House."

The House is a close-kept secret, but if Will trusts him to know, then I suppose I trust him, too.

"We're getting really off topic, here," Ian reminded us.

"Right," Persephone said, "Why do you want to have your life returned?"

"Because I have a quest to complete," he said without hesitation.

"That is a valid reason," Hades began, "But-" Oh, there's always a but! "-You will have to do something for me, first." It took me a second to realize that he was looking directly at me, not Ian. "You're the one who killed him, you'll need to be the one to bring him back."

Couldn't I just tell Persephone about his girlfriend, show her a few pictures, and move on?

"But he's your stepson," I countered, worried about what I was getting into, "Can't you just wave a wand or something and set him free?"

"No, of course I can't! It's like..." he searched for a simile, "Imagine if you were the principal's daughter, and you did something really stupid, like smoking in the bathroom, and you got in school suspension. Now, would the public expect your parent, the principal, to get you out of this? No, in fact, they'd expect the principal to be harder on you. It's just like that. He's my stepson, so I have to be harder on him, otherwise all these already restless souls start rolling over in their graves."

Okay, I'm scared, now. He's gonna go harder on us? When the ultimate ruler of the underworld says that, you get really scared. Dead scared (sorry). There isn't anything much worse than some of the stuff I know about from the myths.

I could think of nothing else to say than, "So what do you want me to do?" The decision was simple: I would do anything that this god set before me. Anything for my family.

Audrey

The rain was beginning to clear up, and there was a double rainbow shining in the distance. I looked through the hospital window at the highway that lead to our section of Houston. How could everyone be so close and yet so far?

Danielle shook her head. "We should get her back to our healers. They can do more for her."

"She's half mortal, too," I countered, "That's the part of her that she can't live without. Everything else is just extra."

Grace looked up and stared at me thoughtfully.

I was starting to get a little creeped out. "What?"

"What if we could establish an empathy link between you and Christine? Then you could talk to her, and get her to push herself out of the coma."

Wow, that was a really good idea.

On the window sill now stood a little butterfly, despite it being the middle of winter, like a sign of hope.

By: Elizabeth Pallan